Updates and Ways to Help After Helene
Oct. 5, 2024 Update:
Attention locals! We are partnering with our friends at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games to open up the shower house in MacRae Meadows, beginning Monday, Oct. 7.
The Games have posted this schedule for the warm-water showers: Monday – Saturday: 8 – 11 a.m. and 4 – 7 p.m.
When the showers are available, the meadow gate on the Linville-side of the meadows will be open. MacRae Meadows is located just south of the Grandfather Mountain park entrance on U.S. 221.
An attendant will be on site while the showers are open.
If you are coming to use the showers and have a towel, washcloth and toiletries you can bring for yourself, please do so. Grandfather currently has a limited supply of towels and toiletries for folks coming without these items, but we are working on getting more.
If you are from outside the region and would like to support the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation’s continued relief work efforts, please visit grandfather.com/helene to make a donation.
Oct. 4, 2024 Update:
It has been one week since Helene tore through Western North Carolina, leaving behind unimaginable effects for the communities surrounding Grandfather Mountain. Towns were flooded; roads and bridges washed away; landslides have forever changed the landscape of the region; many people have lost their homes and livelihoods; and, tragically, people are still missing and lives were lost.
As we continue to grasp the full extent of the storm’s impact on so many, we know that there is a very long and difficult road ahead.
We have been working with hundreds of folks from Avery County nonprofits and tourism friends to good Samaritans and international relief organizations.
Though the majority of the county has yet to get power back and communication signals are still limited in some areas, Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation staff have been showing up at the park every day this week to provide surrounding communities with supplies, meals and support. This has included delivering nonperishable food, water, generators, gas and other goods; assisting at donation distribution sites; coordinating the dispersal of Starlink kits; clearing trees, debris and some residential trash; helping with flood cleanup; preparing hundreds of meals daily for both rescue crews and local residents; grilling hamburgers and hot dogs in hard-hit areas; and getting immediate assistance to our neighbors in need.
Check out the photos below of our team in action, and thank you for checking in.
Oct. 1, 2024 Update:
All of us at the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation want to express our sincere gratitude to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, messages, concern and love, from near and far, both for this special place and the High Country of North Carolina.
Thankfully, we can share that all Grandfather staff are safe. We’ve been working tirelessly — through communication challenges, minimal or no cell signal and poor road conditions — to confirm that every employee is accounted for.
The mountain’s habitat animals are also all doing well and being cared for by their dedicated team of keepers. The park sustained some damage, but nothing that can’t be cleaned up with time.
There are truly no words to describe the devastating impact the storm has had across Western North Carolina. Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is not.
We have turned our focus from park operations to humanitarian efforts in our area until our communities become more sustainable and are working with a number of Avery County nonprofits, other regional businesses and our tourism friends on this. Locally, donated supplies can be taken to the First Baptist Church in Newland.
Over the last few days, Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation staff members have been helping out wherever they can, purchasing generators so hospital patients can go home with their medical equipment and so folks in local shelters can return to their neighborhoods as well, helping feed 250 members of local rescue crews in partnership with World Central Kitchen and purchasing items like gas grills and batteries for the community. Volunteer hours have also been spent in a number of different ways, such as moving goods and clothing to be distributed to those in need and helping with grading repairs so flood-damaged businesses in the community get closer to reopening.
We are so thankful for our area’s first responders, emergency crews and everyone else that has come together in the community to help others. We are trying to support these essential community members any way that we can.
How You Can Help Right Now:
Monetary donations for Hurricane Helene relief efforts can be made on our website. Those funds will be used to provide immediate assistance to people affected by the storm in our community. The Grandfather Mountain team and the community appreciate any donation, of any size.
While we continue to gather more information and assess the situation, we will provide updates as best we can. The park remains temporarily closed until further notice. Please stay tuned. We appreciate your support at this time, and always.